Swisscom Net Nearly Doubles,
Helped by Mobile-Phone Unit

ZURICH -- Swisscom AG Wednesday reported a near doubling in 2003 net profit and said it plans a two-billion-Swiss-franc share buyback and will seek to sell its German wireless-phone unit Debitel AG.

The Swiss telecommunications company said its full-year net profit surged to 1.57 billion francs ($1.25 billion) in 2003, up 91% from 824 million francs a year earlier helped by cost cuts, lower write-downs and the company's highly...